<p>Knox and Renin,
Looks like you both have good lists to me, but one thing to remember about CMU and Tisch is that they cost $40-45,000 per year and Tisch, in particular, is notorious for being stingy with financial aid. I think WCT's son did manage to get some good grant aid from CMU though he's still gonna have lots of loans to pay off which can be kind of scary with a BFA in Acting. Another thing to check on is to see if your state has reciprocation (???) agreements with out-of-state universities where you might be able to pay in-state tuition. Another thing ... DePaul is a reputed to be a great training program, but they admit 52 and cut half of them at the end of freshmen year, so it's only great for the survivors. It's a little less brutal than their old system where they were still cutting people at the end of sophomore year and beyond, but still ... it is what it is.</p>
<p>Have either of you looked at the Webster University conservatory in St. Louis or the University of Minnesota Guthrie Theatre Program? I went to the callback weekend for Minnesota/Guthrie and was MOST impressed though the winters there truly are brutal. Unfortunately, I had to cancel on them before I found out whether or not I got in because I had to declare by April 1 for NMF scholarship reasons. Had they gotten off their butts and sent their letters out in time with a happy one for me and a nice scholarship offer, I would've had a much tougher choice to make. If you're into screen acting, you might want to give Emerson a long look, too. Vassar is also another great BA program to consider if you can afford it and they have what is supposed to be a good film studies program with some of on-camera ops for actors.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah ... ReninDetroit, You should check me on this, but I believe UCLA has around a 3% admit rate for theatre. Ithaca's BFA in Performance is also selective though not necessarily a "Theatre Ivy," so you might wanna move it to your "A" list. </p>
<p>Zetsui,
Admissions to Rutgers' BFA Acting program is more like around 6-8%. That's the admit rate at most of the good audition-based theatre schools. Maybe your sister meant their BA in theatre studies.</p>
<p>BTW, you guys should repost on Theatre/Drama to keep it going. ;) There are a lot of people "in the know" that read there who can give you good advice but probably don't read here.</p>